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Are restaurants actually profiting from those little 3% and 4% surcharges? That’s what one article tries to find out, so we’re curious in hearing the restaurant community’s reaction. Other reading this morning: Nick Ritchie’s culinary travels, the refreshed Balboa Cafe in Marin, an insane-sounding, very expensive/ambitious new Manhattan restaurant, and more:

From the local scene:

The Wall Street Journal has a big article on how some San Francisco appear to be profiting from the Healthy SF menu surcharges, or at least, how the surcharges can be misleading to the consumer. It’s nothing illegal on the part of the restaurants, so much as a noticeable flaw in Healthy SF.

“One Market, which says its annual revenue exceeds $5 million, is one of at least 40 San Francisco restaurants identified by The Wall Street Journal that tell customers they are charging extra in the name of health-care benefits, but which end up spending less than a third of what they allocate … Keeping the money raised from the surcharges isn’t illegal. But some people raise the question of whether restaurants are misleading diners by charging extra for an expense that the eatery doesn’t spend much on.”

It’s a thought-provoking piece, but as Jonathan Kauffman points out, it doesn’t mention the restaurants that use the surcharge to give their employees health insurance, not HSAs. Still, an important topic. Restaurateurs, please share your thoughts on the article: insidescoopsf@sfgate.com. Anonymity guaranteed if desired. [Wall Street Journal]

Mill Valley’s Balboa Cafe is hitting its stride with a new chef: “As I wrote when Balboa opened, it will only be a matter of time before the Mill Valley spot becomes an institution in its own right. Though the menu could still use some tweaking to be more consistent, it’s continuing to morph into what the neighborhood wants it to be.” [Marin IJ]

From the national scene:

There’s a new NYC restaurant named Romera, run by a chef who carries a “Dr.” title, with paragraph-long menu cards for each item on the 11-course $245 menu. [Eater NY]

GrubHub gets $11 million in capital, led by Benchmark Capital the investment group behind OpenTable, Yelp, Zillow, Twitter and eBay. [Restaurant News]